


on immortality (the highs and lows)

by tinycutefauna



Series: One Piece One Shots [11]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen, Immortality and it’s dangers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:40:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27206041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinycutefauna/pseuds/tinycutefauna
Summary: The thing about immortality that nobody ever considered, Marco mused, was the sheerawkwardnessof trying to socialise with people born in the latest century. He remembered enough about the start of his life to recall that he had always been a bit more mature than his peers (which had made it hard to connect with them) but adding a millenia or two to that only made things that much harder. At least, he thought, watching his drunken brothers make fools of themselves trying to impress the women in the bar, some things were universal.-Aka the story where I spontaneously generate another backstory for Marco just for the sake of him laughing about human nature and then have it devolve into rambles because that’s what I do best!
Relationships: Fushichou Marco | Phoenix Marco & Portgas D. Ace, Fushichou Marco | Phoenix Marco & Shirohige | Whitebeard | Edward Newgate, Fushichou Marco | Phoenix Marco & Thatch
Series: One Piece One Shots [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1898179
Comments: 1
Kudos: 68





	on immortality (the highs and lows)

**Author's Note:**

> Me: haha if Marco was immortal, he would laugh about how humanity never gave up on dick jokes  
> Also me: haha what if Marco devolved into thinking so much that his brain would shut down because being immortal is tough
> 
> At least there’s a happy ending, right?

The thing about immortality that nobody ever considered, Marco mused, was the sheer _awkwardness_ of trying to socialise with people born in the latest century. He remembered enough about the start of his life to recall that he had always been a bit more mature than his peers (which had made it hard to connect with them) but adding a millenia or two to that only made things that much harder. At least, he thought, watching his drunken brothers make fools of themselves trying to impress the women in the bar, some things were universal.

He took another long sip of his drink. For example, genitalia seemed to be a popular topic. He grinned as he remembered a lifetime of the same immature jokes in different forms over the years. It was unfortunate that he had never been the sort to resort to those kinds of jokes because, as was clear from the spectacle in front of him, sex jokes were often, weirdly enough, effective at breaking down boundaries. In fact, it looked like one of the women was amused enough to actually spend the night with one of his brothers. There was no accounting for taste, he supposed.

“You really do look like a creepy old man, you know, grinning to yourself hunched over a drink in a shadowy corner like that.” A young voice interrupted his contemplation.

Marco smiled up at his newest brother who had made his way over to Marco, probably because it wasn’t fun to be the only sober person in a room full of drunkards and the nurses had forbidden him from drinking because of his narcolepsy medication. “Well, it’s good that you’re here now so that I’m not grinning to myself, isn’t it?”

It probably was a good thing that Ace had come to join him, he figured. One of the things they _had_ gotten right about immortality was that it could be hard to bear sometimes. On some nights when he was left alone, he could sometimes retreat so deeply into his own mind that it required a strong press of observation haki to push him back into the world of living. It was his mind’s natural defence to shut down when things got hard but he hated to miss being with his brothers (there was only so much time he could get with them after all) and it was nice to have his thoughts interrupted before he could fall too far into them.

Fingers snapped in front of his eyes and Marco was startled to realise he had zoned out again and missed Ace's response to his question. That was… concerning. He was nearer to shutting down than he had expected.

"Hey, Marco, are you alright?" Ace's voice was softer and more concerned than usual, barely audible over the noisiness over the rest of their brother.

Marco blinked at him, trying to push himself back into reality. Five things he could see… Ace's concerned face, the beer Marco was holding onto, the lights behind Ace, their brothers in the background and the bar counter. Four things he could hear… the sound of his heartbeat in his ears, Ace's voice, laughter from behind them and somebody yelling at the bartender for more drinks. Three things he could feel… his legs as they tripped over each other, the noise pressing down on him, Ace's grip on his wrist as he dragged him across the bar. Wait, that last one seemed wrong… why was that?

He looked up and realised Ace was now talking frantically to Thatch who had previously been drinking with everyone else and pulling him towards where he had left Marco standing. Ah. That was no good.

Marco carefully stepped forward towards Thatch's table and put his drink down while his brothers were still occupied trying to figure out what was wrong. " _Thatch_."

Thatch and Ace's argument fell apart as Marco spoke with enough force to get across his seriousness to them. Two pairs of confused eyes turned to him and he almost smiled at the same worried look on his brothers' faces. "I can't… I'm switching off, yoi."

It was a phrase that he had invented some decades back for his shipmates, as a way to warn them of what was happening. He must have been human once, he thought, because he could love them so much but also because he reacted so _humanly_ to when things went wrong. When he was left alone for too long and was too tired, he started to dissociate. He usually came back eventually but there was no telling when it would happen - he had once lost an entire century. This phrase was a warning to his shipmates that he was losing himself without alerting potential enemies to his weakness.

There were a few people in power that knew he was immortal despite the lengths to which he had gone to hide his identity. He had known when he tattooed Pops' mark onto himself that concealing himself now would be harder than ever. But there were always good souls in the world and he had long learned that it was better to live as if he was mortal and be pained at his losses than cut himself away and lose his humanity again.

" _Son_."

Marco found himself snapping to attention as he looked up owlishly at his father who was holding him. When had that happened? " _Come back to me, son."_

And Marco did.

It was odd to feel the world shift slightly as he ended up back into a normal headspace but he was infinitely grateful that his Pops could help him like this. He transformed into his Phoenix form and flew up to Pops' shoulder. "Sorry, Pops. I didn't realise I was slipping up, yoi. I'm back now."

A large hand came up to gently stroke his feather as Pops smiled at him. It was the same way he had originally dealt with Marco when they had first met, Marco barely holding onto his senses. Marco fought back tears as he noticed, once again, how old Whitebeard had gotten. It wouldn't be long until Marco lost him too.

"You've worried your little brothers, Marco. You've worried me, too. How about you go tell them you're alright and then go sleep? You need to rest." Pops was always so much softer at these times when Marco needed him.

He chirruped his consent and gracefully glided down to the ship's deck where he found Ace and Thatch looking as concerned as he'd last seen them. They must have taken him to the ship when Marco spaced out completely and he smiled at them as he landed and transformed back into his human self. It only took a moment for them to figure out he was better now and then he was barreled over by two bodies, one smelling of alcohol and the other feverishly hot, as they did their best to hug the life out of him.

It was good to be back.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to reach out to me on Tumblr/Twitter anytime (I’m @tinycutefauna there too)
> 
> Kudos and comments (even just a <3) are always appreciated!
> 
> (Also Marco was doing the 5-senses-list-countdown thing you’re supposed to do to help your ground yourself)


End file.
